Apres Vous

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(M) Nova, Rivoli, Kino, Como, Brighton Bay

In Patrice Leconte's 1998 The Girl on the Bridge,
Daniel Auteuil plays a carnival knife-thrower who, in the early
stages of the movie, stops a beautiful young woman (Vanessa
Paradis) from committing suicide. In Apres Vous, he plays
a man who makes a similar kind of intervention: the person he saves
this time, however, is a glum, uncommunicative man who seems
unmoved, even put out, by his rescue.

Auteuil's character, Antoine, assumes responsibility for the
stranger. He moves Louis (Jose Garcia) into his apartment; he
undertakes to build his confidence, find him a job, and track down
Blanche, the woman Louis loved and lost.

Antoine seemed to be a man with the perfectly ordered life. He's
a waiter at a well-regarded French restaurant, a consummate
professional; although work obviously takes priority in his life,
he has an understanding girlfriend, Christine (Maryline Canto).

But in his determination to give his charge something to live
for, Antoine risks bringing chaos and disorder into his world -
particularly when he gets the lugubrious Louis a job in his
restaurant, and even more so when he secretly locates Blanche
(Sandrine Kiberlain) and finds himself attracted to her.

Apres Vous is a carefully constructed comedy of
repressed desires, missed opportunities and the challenges of
optimism. The title suggests the professional politeness that is an
essential part of Antoine's job: catering to the needs of others,
putting himself second. Yet in taking on this role for Louis, his
customary control is lost: as Louis' confidence rises, Antoine's
starts to fall. He cannot give, he discovers, what he does not
have.

Writer-director Pierre Salvadori rations the physical gags and
the absurdity: the focus is more on wry character development; on a
warm, knowing exploration of emotional dilemmas and their
restrained yet unsettling comic possibilities.